Department of Biology, Room 56-423             Tel. 617/253-4707

September 26, 1972

Professor Hans A. Krebs
Metabolic Research Laboratory
Nufffeld Department of Clinical !?edicine
University of Oxford
Oxford, England

Dear Professor Krebs,

fn the Sumner issue of Perspectives in Riology and Medicine I found
your articlec entitled "Some Facts of lif -- Bf 1     d Politics."
It is an interestina coincidence that a btok of iiXyn= in press
has the tentative (not final) title of "Some Facts of Life."

I hope you will forgive my writing you to express my deep concern about
some of the positions you take in your article, especially on the
relation between biology and society. I also wish to state at the out-
set that I agree with many of your proposals for action, especially as
they concern community service and increased emphasis on quality
performance.

I am sure you are aware that most of the statements you present on human
biology are either anecdotic or the product of writers who can hardly be
considered as scientifically grounded. Suffice it to mention Wilfred
Trotter's book, Instinct of the Herd in Peace and War. I would consider
Desmond Morris's books in the sam category. I harmy see the value of
quoting Plato or Ovfd or Schiller.  As for Konrad Lorenz, it is sufficient
to look at a passage quoted by Leon Eisenberg (Science 176: 123, 1972)
(COPY enclosed) to ludqe the extremes of suppormaflsm and the

Nazi-approach to the Jewish question to which Lorenz
aggression inevitably led him.

's ideas on human

More serious I find your discussion of "the beast in
a series of irrelevant anecdotes, such as criminolog

                               I' Apart from
                i$:*have lona
since learned not to use as evidence but which yellow journalistsruse
systematicallyzou bring in the story of the XYY individuals which is
anything but well established.  Let me point out that to find a high
incidence of a certain genotype in American prisons usually indicates,
not a correlation with criminality but a correlation with black skin.

From your discussion, especially in the section entitled "A Biological
Approach to Social Problems," I derive the impression that you are
somewhat critical of the social sciences and optimistic about the
biological approach.  I believe it is unfair togive the impression
that biology today has an,ything to offer that is relevant to the


Professor Krebs

P* 2

serious problems which you so thoughtfully discuss. The social
sciences, for all their shortcomings, have at least the merit of
having purged the air of a spurious bfologfzing, which had led to
the assumption of the existence of congenital crimfnals in a society
that creates by its workings a mass of socially and economically
deprived.

I hope you will consider this letter, however critical, as a
contribution to a useful dialogue.  I would appreciate it if in your
reply you would tell me whether you have any objection to my sending
~JI letter to the Perspectives.
could be published tog&&%?-  Possibly, my letter and your reply

Respectfully yours,

sel/na

s. E. Luria